CLEARLAKE – The Lake County Democratic Central Committee will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 4, at the Redbud Library Community Room,14785 Burns Valley Road in the City of Clearlake.

This month's guests are candidate for Lake County Superintendent of Schools, Wally Holbrook and candidate for District 2 Board of Supervisors, Joyce Overton.

Meetings are open to the public and committee membership is open to all registered Democrats.

Contact the Democratic Party of Lake County at 707-277-0713 or by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

The Committee's Web site is www.lakecountydemocrats.org .

The Clear Lake Trowel & Trellis Garden Club recently honored Jo Douville with a Penny Pines Plantation. Photo by Linda Pyers.

LAKEPORT – Clear Lake Trowel & Trellis Garden Club, through the Penny Pines Program, presented its 51st Penny Pines certificate in honor of Jo Douville.

Penny Pines Chair Ann Blue presented the award to Douville and shared with the membership some of her many contributions to the club.

Those contributions include acting as parliamentarian for two years, opportunity drawing for two years, youth chair, assistant to garden therapy chair, vice president, and co-chair for the new open space city parkland donated by Bob Millberry and named by him (Hanson-Linder-Dinsimore-Millberry Memorial Grove).

Douville also presented a soapmaking workshop for the North Lake Garden Club and is secretary for the Mendo-Lake District.

A big thank you to Jo for all her contributions to the club since becoming a member in 2004.

Clear Lake Trowel & Trellis Garden Club has been a participant in the U.S. Forest Service Penny Pines Program since February 1990.

Our club, along with the other garden clubs in California as well as many other service clubs, supports this program.

For a contribution of $69 we buy a plantation consisting of approximately one acre planted with 300 to 350 seedlings. In return the Forest Service provides us with a certificate in memory or in honor of the chosen person, in this case Jo Douville.

Each club chooses which California National Forest to send their funds to. Our club has chosen to send our funds to Mendocino National Forest, Grindstone Ranger District the Spanish Fire Area where around 5,000 acres were burned in 2002.

The funds received from Penny Pines contributions are held until conditions are right for planting and federal funds are available. When reforestation has been completed a standard forest sign will be erected near the site listing names of those honored.

The public is invited to participate in this program. For information contact Penny Pines Chair Ann Blue at 707-263-5854.

The Clear Lake Trowel & Trellis Garden Club meets at noon on the third Tuesday of the month at the Scotts Valley Women's Club House, 2298 Hendricks Road, Lakeport.

Members, guests and all interested are most welcome. President Jo Jameson, 707-263-4039, invites interested gardeners to join us.

Clear Lake Trowel & Trellis Garden Club is a member of Mendo-Lake District, California Garden Club Inc., Pacific Region and National Garden Clubs Inc.

For more information see www.clttgc.org .

LOS ANGELES – On Monday California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. joined the California Department of Real Estate (DRE) and the State Bar of California in warning Californians to avoid forensic loan audits, the loan-modification industry's latest "phony foreclosure-relief service," in which homeowners pay up-front fees for a forensic review of their lender's practices, but are provided no actual foreclosure relief.

"Forensic loan audits are yet another phony foreclosure-relief service hawked by loan-modification consultants trying to cash in on the desperation of homeowners facing foreclosure," Brown said. "The foreclosure-relief industry continues to be long on promises, but short on results."

Individuals and businesses who offer forensic loan audits use inflated and misleading claims to convince homeowners to pay up-front fees for services that produce no actual foreclosure relief.

Homeowners are encouraged to pay for an audit of their mortgage loan file to determine their lender's compliance with state and federal mortgage-lending laws. This audit is pitched to homeowners as a tool they can use to gain leverage and speed up the loan-modification process.

In truth, there is no evidence or statistical data to support claims that forensic loan audits-even if performed by a licensed, legitimate and trained auditor, mortgage professional or lawyer-will help homeowners obtain loan modifications or provide any other foreclosure relief.

"The State Bar is committed to dealing with all aspects of loan foreclosure fraud involving attorneys," said State Bar President Howard Miller. "We will continue to work with all the other government agencies to prevent fraud and to move for disciplinary sanctions against attorneys who violate their obligations to their clients."

By law, all individuals and businesses offering mortgage-foreclosure consulting, loan-modification and foreclosure-assistance services must register with Brown's office and post a $100,000 bond. It is also illegal for loan-modification consultants and businesses to charge up-front fees for their services.

Brown has sought court orders to shut down more than 30 fraudulent foreclosure-relief companies and has brought criminal charges and obtained lengthy prison sentences for dozens of deceptive loan-modification consultants.

In 2009, the DRE investigated more than 2,000 complaints involving loan-modification scams. Nearly 350 individuals and companies received a desist and refrain order to stop illegal activity.

"The DRE has aggressively pursued loan-modification scammers who prey on vulnerable and financially stressed homeowners, and those peddling false hope by promising mortgage relief with a forensic audit will be scrutinized," stated Real Estate Commissioner Jeff Davi. "With consumer education efforts and warnings, we hope to keep consumers from falling victim in the first place."

As part of the consumer alert, Brown offered the following tips to homeowners:

• Don't pay up-front fees. Foreclosure consultants are prohibited by law from collecting money before services are performed.

• Don't ignore letters from your lender or loan servicer. Responding to those letters is your best bet for saving your house.

• Don't transfer title or sell your house to a "foreclosure rescuer." Beware! This is a scam to convince homeowners they can stay in the home as renters and buy their home back later. It could also be part of a fraudulent bankruptcy filing. Either way, a scammer can then evict you and take your home.

• Don't pay your mortgage payments to anyone other than your lender or loan servicer. Mortgage consultants often keep the money for themselves.

• Never sign any documents without reading them first. Many homeowners think that they are signing documents for a loan modification or for a new loan to pay off their delinquent mortgage. Later, they discover that they actually transferred ownership of their home to someone who is now trying to evict them.

Nonprofit housing counselors certified by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development provide free help to homeowners. To find a counselor in your area, call 1-800-569-4287.

If you are a homeowner who has been scammed, you can contact Brown's office at 1-800-952-5225 or file a complaint online at: www.ag.ca.gov/consumers/general.php . You can also learn more about avoiding scams and obtain a complaint form by visiting the DRE's web site at: www.dre.ca.gov .

If you have a complaint against a lawyer, contact the State Bar Complaint Hotline at 1-800-843-9053. Complaint forms and an explanation of the attorney discipline system are available online at: www.calbar.ca.gov .

In 2009, California accounted for 22 percent of the nation's foreclosure activity, with 632,573 homes in foreclosure statewide. This is an annual increase of more than 20 percent in foreclosure activity from 2008 and a 150 percent increase from 2007.

For more information on Brown's action against loan-modification fraud visit http://ag.ca.gov/loanmod .

As you get ready to prepare your 2009 tax return, the Internal Revenue Service wants to make sure you have all the details about tax law changes that may impact your tax return.

Here are the top five changes that may show up on your 2009 return.

1. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

ARRA provides several tax provisions that affect tax year 2009 individual tax returns due April 15, 2010. The recovery law provides tax incentives for first-time homebuyers, people who purchased new cars, those that made their homes more energy efficient, parents and students paying for college, and people who received unemployment compensation.

2. IRA deduction expanded

You may be able to take an IRA deduction if you were covered by a retirement plan and your 2009 modified adjusted gross income is less than $65,000 or $109,000 if you are married filing a joint return.

3. Standard deduction increased for most taxpayers

The 2009 basic standard deductions all increased. They are:

• $11,400 for married couples filing a joint return and qualifying widows and widowers;

• $5,700 for singles and married individuals filing separate returns;

• $8,350 for heads of household.

Taxpayers can now claim an additional standard deduction based on the state or local sales or excise taxes paid on the purchase of most new motor vehicles purchased after Feb. 16, 2009.

You can also increase your standard deduction by the state or local real estate taxes paid during the year or net disaster losses suffered from a federally declared disaster.

4. 2009 standard mileage rates

The standard mileage rates changed for 2009. The standard mileage rates for business use of a vehicle is 55 cents per mile. The standard mileage rates for the cost of operating a vehicle for medical reasons or a deductible move is 24 cents per mile.

The standard mileage rate for using a car to provide services to charitable organizations remains at 14 cents per mile.

5. Kiddie tax change

The amount of taxable investment income a child can have without it being subject to tax at the parent's rate has increased to $1,900 for 2009.

For more information about these and other changes for tax year 2009, visit www.irs.gov .

LAKEPORT – The team captain's meeting for the American Cancer Society Relay For Life will be held Thursday, March 4.

The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. at the Sutter Lakeside Wellness Center, 5176 Hill Road East, Lakeport.

The committee meeting will follow.

The wellness center is the building behind the hospital. Go through the doors, up the elevator, past the gym, and look for the balloons and signs.

All are welcome to attend, start a team, join a team, be on a committee and help fight back against cancer.

The Relay for Life will take place May 15 and 16 at Kelseyville High School.

LAKE COUNTY – In honor of Black History Month, KPFZ 88.1 FM “Woman’s Voices” show this Thursday, Feb. 25, will feature Voris Brumfield and Aqeela El-Amin Bakheit.

The show will begin at 9 a.m.

Brumfield will share her life experiences growing up in segregated Houston, Texas, with listeners and hosts Rae Eby-Carl, Gloria Flaherty, Loretta McCarthy and Lenny Matthews.

Bakheit, president of Lake County's chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, is finishing up her master's thesis on gender, race and our judicial system, and will discuss those issues on the show.

Listeners are encouraged to call in with any questions or comments for the show's guests. The studio call in number is 707-263-3435.